Migrant families protest after U.S.-Mexico reunion event cancelled

Families separated by U.S.-Mexico border protest Trump's anti-migrant policies, canceling Mother's Day reunion event.

Families separated by the U.S.-Mexico border staged a demonstration Saturday (Mat 10, 2025) on both sides of the boundary, where U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-migrant policies forced the cancellation of a Mother’s Day reunion event.

The American military last week set up a zone in Texas on the U.S. southern border where troops are authorized to detain people crossing illegally.

The establishment of the zone led American officials to cancel the “Hugs, Not Walls” event, which has been held annually since 2016 by the Border Network for Human Rights advocacy group.

The event scheduled for Saturday (Mat 10, 2025), one day before Mother’s Day, was meant to bring together undocumented migrants in the US with their family members in Mexico.

“We have been doing this since 2016 without any problems, and now we have been banned from using this section of the border,” Irma Cruz of the Border Network told AFP, calling the move “devastating.”

The group urged the 100 families that had signed up for the reunion event to join a protest in the Mexican border city of Cuidad Juarez. It also called on families in El Paso, the Texas city across from Cuidad Juarez, to demonstrate too.

“There are so many mothers on both sides without their children, unable to hug them,” Ms. Cruz said.